


The Yaga Revelation

by robyngoodfellow



Series: Team Stego Adjacent [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Slavic Mythology & Folklore
Genre: Bucky Punched A Bear, Confused Bucky Barnes, Gen, Hydra Does Not Include Russian Folklore In Its Brainwashing Curriculum, Natasha Has A Secret, Natasha is Anastasia, Not THAT Secret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 17:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11295738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robyngoodfellow/pseuds/robyngoodfellow
Summary: Natasha and Bucky are in Russia, and discover a strange house in the woods.





	The Yaga Revelation

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Yaga](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11305080) by [SmutLover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmutLover/pseuds/SmutLover). 
  * Inspired by [Tea With Baba Yaga](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11301279) by [themuppetyone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/themuppetyone/pseuds/themuppetyone). 



Somewhere in the forested heart of Russia:

Two forms ran silently through the forest. The stars gave off barely enough light for Bucky and Natasha to see the track they were following through the woods. 

The pair had been sent into the northern Russian town of Vuktyl, to check out a tip that there was a working Hydra facility located in an abandoned coal mine. Since Bucky and Natasha were the only members of the team who were fluent in Russian, they were the obvious choice. Apparently they hadn't blended in quite enough when they went for a 'romantic walk' past the old mine, however, as they were now being chased by armed gunmen with dogs. 

The sound of the dogs had faded into the distance, and Nat and Bucky slowed. They stepped off the path, behind the trunk of an enormous pine tree.

“Well, now we know…” Bucky began. He saw the look on Nat’s face, and trailed off. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s something familiar about these woods,” Nat replied, staring along the track, as though sheer force of will could make it give up its secrets.

“You been here before on a job?”

“No. Never been to Vuktyl before in my life.” She stepped back onto the path and tilted her head. “Do you see a light?”

Bucky peered down the path and saw a faint glow in the distance. “Yeah, I see it. Should we head that way?” There was a bark in the distance, making their decision for them. 

They approached the glow cautiously, hoping there was someplace they could hole up. Even a barn or a chicken coop might help them muddle the trail.

A barely defined footpath led off the main track, and the pair followed it, Bucky walking forward, Natasha with her back to his, watching the rear. When a fence came into view, Bucky stopped dead. “What the…?”

Natasha stepped out from behind him and turned to see what had caused his reaction. The fence enclosed a small clearing in the densely packed woods. Two tall trees stood in the centre of the clearing, looking a bit like birches in the flickering light. Atop each fencepost was a lantern, which emitted a cheery light in their direction. The cheerfulness of the light was offset however, by the fact that the lanterns were made of human skulls.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Natasha said, sounding like she’d reached the absolute end of her last nerve. 

An eerie cackle came from behind them on the path. Bucky whirled to see where it had come from, but he saw no-one. Natasha, however, hadn’t moved. A voice came out of the darkness.

“ _ Hello, Nastya _ ,” the voice said in Russian. 

“ _ Hello, Mother _ ,” Natasha replied, also in Russian, with an exasperated sigh. She stepped towards the gate and opened it. The skulls on either side of the gate turned to look up at her, the light from their eye sockets shining on her face. “ _ What are you looking at? _ ” she snapped at them, and they turned to face resolutely outwards again. Bucky was pretty sure that if any of them had still had lips, they’d have started whistling nonchalantly, just to prove how much they weren’t looking at her. 

Natasha stalked down a little garden path, planted on either side with blackberry canes, moving towards the two trees. Bucky followed her, after conscientiously closing the gate behind him. He still wasn’t sure where the voice had come from, but how could it have been Nat’s mother? Her mother had died during the Russian Revolution. Hadn’t she?

Nat stood at the end of the flagstone path, hands on her hips, looking up. “ _ Get your feathered ass down here or I swear I will cut you off at the knees _ .”

There was a tremble, and what Bucky had thought were trees bent in the middle and revealed themselves to be chicken legs, with a tiny cottage where the rest of the chicken should be. 

“What the fuck, Nat?” 

“You routinely try to drink the god of thunder under the table, and you’re weirded out by a house on legs?”

“Whaddya mean ‘try’?” Bucky demanded. He stopped short as the door opened, revealing someone who could only be described as a hag. She looked a lot like the wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz, only without the green face paint. She was hunchbacked, with long white hair tied up under a dingy cloth that might’ve been white once upon a time. Her nose and chin jutted out, almost meeting in front of a mouthful of grey teeth. Her clothes were patched and faded and full of holes, and a spindly pipe hung from the corner of her mouth. 

“ _ Come in, Nastya, come in! And bring your lovely friend with you, _ ” the old woman cackled, and stepped aside to let them in. When Bucky passed her, she pinched his right arm. “ _ Oh, very lovely _ .”

“ _ No, mother, he’s not for you _ .” Nat said, walking down the hall, past door after closed door. 

“ _ You’re not going to share him, my darling daughter? _ ” Bucky realized he was too used to people talking about him as though he wasn’t there.

“ _ I’m right here, you know, and I’m not into that sort of thing. _ No offence, Nat.” 

Nat turned and glared at him over her shoulder, then her eyes flicked back to the old woman following them. “ _He’s not for me either_ ,” she said. “ _He’s my_ **_friend._** _Anyway, he’s already had his Ordeal, and his True Love’s Kiss, so you can just keep your tricks and potions to yourself_.” 

Nat stepped out of the hallway, and into a brightly lit kitchen. Bucky stopped just inside the kitchen and looked around. A fire crackled merrily on the hearth; a pot full of something bubbling softly hung from a hook above it. A small square table sat in one corner, and ropes of braided garlic and onions and bunches of herbs hung from nails on the walls. 

Natasha gestured for Bucky to sit at the table, and he sat where she indicated, with his back to the wall. The old woman went to the soup pot on the hearth and began to dish out three bowls, while Nat walked over to a cupboard and pulled out an old blue mason jar and three mismatched glasses. It seemed to Bucky that she knew exactly where everything was. She’d obviously been here before, but she said she’d never been to Vuktyl. Although, he thought, a house on legs could probably move around. Sitting down to his right, Natasha set one of the glasses down in front of him, and filled it with clear liquid from the mason jar. 

The old woman set a bowl and spoon in front of him, and one in front of Nat, then went back to the hearth for her own bowl. She sat and picked up her glass. Bucky and Natasha followed suit.

“Na zdorovje,” Bucky said, and downed the vodka in one gulp. Nat smirked and poured him another glass. He reached for his spoon, but Nat laid two fingers on the back of his hand, her eyes never leaving the old woman’s face. 

“ _ My own daughter? _ ”

“ _ Yes. Your daughter. That was enough to teach me not to trust you _ .” 

The pair stared each other down for a moment, before the old woman grinned and stood. 

“ _ Very well, Nastya. It seems you learned your lessons well _ .” The old woman walked over to the hearth. She opened a little door in the side of the chimney, and the smell of fresh warm bread filled the room. She used a wicked-looking knife to slice the loaf, took down a little clay pot off the mantle, and set loaf and pot in the centre of the table. Natasha took a slice of bread, sprinkled a bit of salt from the pot onto it, then added a little to her soup and gestured for Bucky to do the same. Bucky followed suit, and hummed in appreciation. The soup was full of veggies that still tasted like veggies. Not the tasteless commercial things he’d found in stores since he’d woken up. He took a moment to wonder if the old woman grew them herself, then thought about what her compost pile would look like, given her fence, and decided he didn’t want to know.

Bucky gulped down another glass of vodka, enjoying the warmth it and the soup had given him. The old woman, who Nat still hadn’t introduced, watched him curiously. “ _ He’s not going to fall over from drinking your vodka, Mama, _ ” Nat said, shaking her head. “ _ He punched a bear this morning _ ,” she added, in a bored tone. Bucky’s left hand unconsciously made a fist at the memory.

“ _ The big one with the ear missing that’s been snuffling around the village? _ ” the old woman asked, turning to look at Bucky with a look of admiration. “ _ Oh ho! _ ” Bucky reached into the pocket of his jacket, and pulled out the tooth he’d knocked from the bear’s muzzle, setting it on the table with a soft click. 

“ _ It hasn’t been a village in a hundred years, Mama, _ ” Nat said angrily. “ _ There’s twelve thousand people living there now. They don’t even believe in you anymore _ .”

“ _ No _ ,” the old woman chuckled. “ _ But they believed in that bear. Things are changing, Nastya. The old ways are coming back. _ ”

“ _ Yes, Mama. And I’m here to make sure that the men in the old coal mine, the men chasing us, don’t get back the power they had. They worship the Koschei named Hive, Mama. Worship him. _ ”

“ _ That bastard? Very well. You can keep your young man, and I won’t even ask for his name. _ ”

“ _ And I won’t give it to you. You wouldn’t want him anyway, Mama. He’s too tough. Roll up your sleeve _ ,” Nat said, turning to Bucky. He gave her a confused look, and she nodded to indicate she really meant it. 

Bucky rolled up the left sleeve of his shirt, showing the old woman a few inches of his metal arm. The old woman picked up the bear tooth, and tapped it against his arm. She laughed at the metallic plink plink noise it made. 

“ _ You’re right, Nastya, he’d be a match even for my old teeth, _ ” she said. “ _ Go. Go with my blessing. I’ll take care of the ones following you, just to spite the old bastard _ .”

“ _ Thank you, Mama _ .”

“ _ With relish _ .” 

Natasha pinched the bridge of her nose, as though trying to stave off a headache. “ _ Try mustard, Mama. They’re all pigs anyway _ .”

“ _ Don’t be smart, girl. Your father may have liked smart, but I don’t. He wanted a child that would live, one that didn’t have the blood sickness. And here you stand. You’ve survived. Survived the blood sickness, survived the revolution, survived everything that came after. _ ”

Natasha grabbed Bucky’s collar, and tugged him to his feet and towards the kitchen door. She stopped in front of the door, her back to the room.

“ _ Surviving isn’t the same as living, Mama. I did things I’m not proud of, things I may never be clean of _ .” Natasha’s back was turned, so she didn’t see the look of sorrow that crossed the old woman’s face. Didn’t see the tears forming in her eyes. Then she blinked, and the sad mother mourning her child’s loss of innocence was replaced by the wicked witch again. 

The old woman didn’t reply, just waited for Natasha to open the door, before muttering “ _ Now where did I put that mortar? _ ” Bucky followed Natasha into the back garden, where the skull lanterns turned to light their way, past a little shed at the back. The pair had almost reached the back gate when the skull lanterns all turned to the sky. Bucky and Natasha turned to see what they were pointing at and watched as the old woman flew out of the chimney in a giant mortar, using a pestle as a rudder.

“So, you’re telling me that’s your mom?” Bucky said as Natasha opened the back gate.

“You're seriously telling me you don’t know who we just had dinner with? Every Russian schoolchild knows who Baba Yaga is.”

“I was never a Russian schoolchild. Name sounds familiar, though,” Bucky said, as they slipped into the woods. The sound of screaming was carried to them on the breeze, followed by Baba Yaga’s cackling laughter.

“Is she a good guy, or a bad guy?”

“I don’t know. What are we?”

“Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys,” Bucky replied with a grin.

“You watch too much Leverage.”

“No such thing.”

 

Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> Nastya is a nickname for Anastasia.
> 
> Yes, Bucky and Nat spent the trip home arguing Leverage, and which of them was Spencer. 
> 
> Many thanks to follow_the_sun for betaing, and for the twitter insanity that prompted this fic.
> 
> Ganked this explaination from SmutLover  
> "This all began with Muppet over on Twitter talking about Natasha maybe being a mythical figure. And then something about Baba Yaga, and then hey, in some versions, Baba Yaga is three sisters. So then everyone argued over who was going to write it, and then several of us wrote it, so here you go. The "inspired by" works are the others' ideas. "


End file.
